The Lost Symbol

“You want a real answer? Here it is. If I hand you a violin and say you have the capability to use it to make incredible music, I am not lying. You do have the capability, but you’ll need enormous amounts of practice to manifest it. This is no different from learning to use your mind, Robert. Well-directed thought is a learned skill. To manifest an intention requires laserlike focus, full sensory visualization, and a profound belief. We have proven this in a lab. And just like playing a violin, there are people who exhibit greater natural ability than others. Look to history. Look to the stories of those enlightened minds who performed miraculous feats.”

“Katherine, please don’t tell me you actually believe in the miracles. I mean, seriously. turning water into wine, healing the sick with the touch of a hand?”

Katherine took a long breath and blew it out slowly. “I have witnessed people transform cancer cells into healthy cells simply by thinking about them. I have witnessed human minds affecting the physical world in myriad ways. And once you see that happen, Robert, once this becomes part of your reality, then some of the miracles you read about become simply a matter of degree.”

Langdon was pensive. “It’s an inspiring way to see the world, Katherine, but for me, it just feels like an impossible leap of faith. And as you know, faith has never come easily for me.”

“Then don’t think of it as faith. Think of it simply as changing your perspective, accepting that the world is not precisely as you imagine. Historically, every major scientific breakthrough began with a simple idea that threatened to overturn all of our beliefs. The simple statement ‘the earth is round’ was mocked as utterly impossible because most people believed the oceans would flow off the planet. Heliocentricity was called heresy. Small minds have always lashed out at what they don’t understand. There are those who create. and those who tear down. That dynamic has existed for all time. But eventually the creators find believers, and the number of believers reaches a critical mass, and suddenly the world becomes round, or the solar system becomes heliocentric. Perception is transformed, and a new reality is born.”

Langdon nodded, his thoughts drifting now.

“You have a funny look on your face,” she said.

“Oh, I don’t know. For some reason I was just remembering how I used to canoe out into the middle of the lake late at night, lie down under the stars, and think about stuff like this.”

She nodded knowingly. “I think we all have a similar memory. Something about lying on our backs staring up at the heavens. opens the mind.” She glanced up at the ceiling and then said, “Give me your jacket.”

“What?” He took it off and gave it to her.

She folded it twice and laid it down on the catwalk like a long pillow. “Lie down.”

Langdon lay on his back, and Katherine positioned his head on half of the folded jacket. Then she lay down beside him — two kids, shoulder to shoulder on the narrow catwalk, staring up at Brumidi’s enormous fresco.

“Okay,” she whispered. “Put yourself in that same mind-set. a kid lying out in a canoe. looking up at the stars. his mind open and full of wonder.”

Langdon tried to obey, although at the moment, prone and comfortable, he was feeling a sudden wave of exhaustion. As his vision blurred, he perceived a muted shape overhead that immediately woke him. Is that possible? He could not believe he hadn’t noticed it before, but the figures in The Apotheosis of Washington were clearly arranged in two concentric rings — a circle within a circle. The Apotheosis is also a circumpunct? Langdon wondered what else he had missed tonight.

“There’s something important I want to tell you, Robert. There’s another piece to all this. a piece that I believe is the single most astonishing aspect of my research.”

There’s more?

Katherine propped herself on her elbow. “And I promise. if we as humans can honestly grasp this one simple truth. the world will change overnight.”

She now had his full attention.

“I should preface this,” she said, “by reminding you of the Masonic mantras to ‘gather what is scattered’. to bring ‘order from chaos’. to find ‘at-one-ment.’ ”

“Go on.” Langdon was intrigued.

Katherine smiled down at him. “We have scientifically proven that the power of human thought grows exponentially with the number of minds that share that thought.”

Langdon remained silent, wondering where she was going with this idea.